Chelsea centre-back Kurt Zouma is making strides in his recovery from knee surgeryAFP

Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma looks to be making steady progress in his recovery from a serious injury. The powerful young centre-back was ruled out for six months after damaging his anterior cruciate ligament with a horribly awkward landing during a 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge back in early February.

In addition to sidelining him for the remainder of the Premier League season, the blow was also expected to curtail any hopes of the player, who underwent surgery in Barcelona, being named in Didier Deschamps' France squad for the 2016 European Championship finals on home soil.

Zouma revealed last week that he was "so happy to start walking again", and his latest social media update shows the 21-year-old moving freely on an exercise bike accompanied by a caption that reads "step by step".

Another Chelsea defender that could be set for an imminent lay-off is Papy Djilobodji. The £3m ($4.3m) summer signing from Nantes was loaned to Bundesliga outfit Werder Bremen in January after playing just one solitary minute in English football, with a very late substitute cameo during a 4-1 Capital One Cup third-round drubbing of League One Walsall. Despite that chronic lack of first-team football, he initially impressed with his performances at the Weserstadion before being caught up in a controversial episode during the home draw with Mainz on 19 March.

After clashing with Argentine midfielder Pablo de Blasis, television cameras caught Djilobodji making an apparent cut-throat gesture which involved him running an index finger across his neck. The German football federation's sports tribunal have since taken a further look at the incident with media director Ralf Koettker telling news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that any sanctions would be "decided promptly by the committee tomorrow (21 March)."

Referee Manuel Gräfe missed the incident, of which Bremen sporting director Thomas Eichin said: "I'll have a serious talk to him about it and he won't do it again in the future."